The government is delaying the tabling of key notifications to Parliament, thereby withholding information that should be available to all members. A study by a Parliamentary panel revealed that out of 233 statutory notifications containing rules and regulations from 14 Ministries, 125 notifications were presented to Parliament after a delay ranging from one to ten months.
Serious view
As per the rules, the notifications are required to be laid on the Table of the House within 15 days of their publication in the Gazette if the House is in session, and if not, within 15 days of the commencement of the next session.
The panel on Subordinate Legislation headed by Congress leader T. Subbirami Reddy has taken a serious view of the delay and recorded its displeasure over the lackadaisical approach that negates the principle of accountability of the Executive to the Parliament.
Futile exercise
“The accountability of the Ministries to the Parliament and the Constitutional mandate of the Parliament to monitor the functioning of the Executive would become a futile exercise and the Committee has every right to take this matter very seriously,” the report notes.
In 96% of the cases, reasons for the delay were not explained. This data is only for the 248th Session of the Rajya Sabha, which was held from 31 January to 13 February this year.
